It’s Renaissance Festival time in the Charlotte area! Even as a native Charlottean I had no idea what a Renaissance Festival was until I attended as a chaperone for my daughter’s school about 10 years ago. The kids loved the costumes of the vendors and especially liked the hand molds you could make in hot [...]

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Did you know that for the third consecutive year, the Carolina Railhawks are in the NASL (North American Soccer League) Playoffs? Last week the Railhawaks traveled to Blaine, Minn. to face the NSC Minnesota Stars in the first leg of the NASL Semifinal Series, where they unfortunately lost. This Saturday, the game will take place [...]

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I remember riding up to Mount Airy as a child with my eyes wide open and my face glued to the backseat car window staring at the beautiful assortment of leaf colors. Today, I can still feel my heart skip a beat with excitement as I remember stepping out onto the street to smell [...]

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I recently celebrated a birthday. Because it was a BIG birthday, my friends stretched it out for an entire week! While it was dubbed my “birthday week,” the culmination for me was not all about me. On Friday, sitting in a room in Winston Salem, surrounded by friends, it was to recognize and celebrate the [...]

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The Homebuying Adventure process has been part eye-opening, part stressful and part awesome. The biggest eye-opener was of course my meeting with Mollie Bergstrom from Mortgage (I’m still working diligently on building up my credit) but the day we spent looking at houses is right up there as well.
It’s hard to go into an experience [...]

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Businessweek.com recognized Raleigh as America’s Best City a couple of weeks ago. At a recent Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce meeting I attended, we all celebrated the accolade and thanked those leaders both in the public and private sector for all they had contributed to make this ranking possible.
The ranking was based on metrics like [...]

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About 15 years ago, I was up to my nose in public school reform with the Charlotte Chamber of Commerce and the local public education foundation. Until that time, I felt that we paid a good bit of taxes at the state and county level to support a quality education for all students. I maybe [...]

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“Here’s to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes … the ones who see things differently … While some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the [...]

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You hear a lot of reference to go back to mortgage lending requirements of 20 to 30 years ago. What does that mean exactly? Mostly this means that consumers would have to document all income, assets, employment and credit histories, as well as fit into ratio guidelines for their total housing payment and total debt [...]

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I think the most exciting thing about buying your first home is the actual process of looking at homes. I couldn’t wait to see what my choices would be.  I was counting down the days … and finally the day arrived!  The first day of looking was devoted to condos and townhomes. As a former [...]

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